


Five people in Sky High who’s stories I’m not writing

by oddegg



Category: Sky High (2005)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-03-30
Updated: 2010-03-30
Packaged: 2017-10-08 12:59:37
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,401
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/75883
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/oddegg/pseuds/oddegg
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>As per title. An unrelated addition to my story 'The Way It Crumbles'</p>
            </blockquote>





	Five people in Sky High who’s stories I’m not writing

** _ Mr. Grayson/Stitches _ **

He liked it best when she was small. He misses that.

 

It’s not that he doesn’t like being a proper henchman again; being able to plot and plan and bring out the manic, evil cackle that he’d worked so hard on their first time round. It’s not that he doesn’t appreciate it now that Royal Pain is old enough and strong enough to give a good chokehold as punishment; feeling glove leather rough against his throat, closing off his air as he splutters and gasps, as the pressure builds…

 

No. He definitely likes that.

 

But when she was small, when she’d still been that tiny infant that he’d carried away after the last battle with the Commander went so very wrong; hugging her to his chest as he panted and scrabbled his way to safety down back alleys until he’d reached their lair and he’d fully understood what had become of his magnificent Mistress and wept for them both, his muffled tears combining with her new, high, child’s wail…

 

He’d got used to it quickly, and he’d learnt how to look after her. How to feed her and burp her and rock her to sleep. Learnt how soft her skin was now when he touched it to bath her and change her. How very, very soft it was after she was dry and powdered and still so pink and new and naked. How it was like velvet against his mouth when he tremulously kissed her belly; like the downy fuzz of the newest, sweetest peach. The very first of the summer.

 

He’d never _done _anything. That – that was normal. Kissing babies. Loving them and wanting to kiss them and stroke their smooth skin and smell that wonderful, warm milky scent they gave off when they were all clean and fresh.

 

He’d never touched her in any way that a loving father wouldn’t.

 

Sometimes he wonders if she remembers him doing that. If there had still been something of his adult Mistress there behind those clear, baby-blue eyes and she knew what he wanted and if she could have communicated back then she would have let him…

 

But he likes it now she’s grown. He does. Now things are back to normal.

 

Sometimes he wonders if he got close enough now, whether she would still smell the same.

 

 

** _ Penny _ **

Part of Penny thinks that for a superhero high school, they learn very little about their actual powers at Sky High. They learn what they can do with them but not why, not what the extent of them are.

 

So Penny gets taught how to use herselves for joint attacks and (literal) multi-tasking and to make up an _awesome _pyramid for cheers, but nobody appears to wonder about what it’s like to be so many different pieces; whether those pieces have any different powers, or thoughts, or wishes. Part of Penny wishes that they would.

 

Maybe then someone would realize that she’s screaming inside here, where the others have her hidden.

 

 

** _ Larry/Rockboy _ **

There arecertain powers that people are wary of. That everyone _knows _just make you more susceptible to going bad. If you’ve got a guy who can fly and one who can electrocute you, who do you think is more likely to be the villain?

 

There’s a reason that people were wary of Warren and his flaming hands other than his being Baron Battle’s son, after all. Fire has never been something you want to play around with as a superpower.

 

The other elements are usually ok though. Air, water, earth. Rock’s part of earth, Larry supposes, which means he should be fine. He’s in the ‘Hero’ classes, after all.

 

The only thing is… the more he uses his power, the more difficult is gets to go back. Back to ‘normal’, whatever that is. Back to being skinny and spectacled and geeky and ginger. Back to looking like life had placed a ‘kick me’ sign on his back at birth. Larry had got more than his fill of that before he came to Sky High, and when his power came through in the summer break he’d actually wept he’d been so relived.

 

He _loves _being Rockboy, so much so that he stays powered up whenever he can; nobody dares bother you when you’re a seven foot tall, eight hundred pound hunk of granite. But…

The rock seems to be seeping over even when he powers down, and that bothers _him. _When his voice stays gravelly for longer and longer after he’s put his glasses back on, when his colour takes it’s time turning back from greyish-beige to his usual milky white and his thoughts grind slowly like boulders in a crusher.

 

When his skin stays tough and impervious and he can’t feel things even with his soft, fragile human fingers. He’d accidentally stuck a needle into himself the other day and hadn’t noticed till two hours later. He’s started to dream of cutting himself and watching in horror as nothing but fine, grey rock dust pours out from his veins.

 

And without physicalfeelings his emotions seem to be fossilizing as well, turning him hard.  Making him wonder why he needs to learn how to protect these squishy, vulnerable people that surround him, why he needs to do what they say, follow their rules. Why can’t he just take…?

 

People aren’t usually even _aware _of rocks, never mind being wary of them. They don’t usually think of them as a threat.

 

Larry’s beginning to think maybe they should.

** **

** **

** _ Nurse Spex _ **

She’s been the school nurse at Sky High for twenty years now and she does like her work and the kids. It’s quieter than her old job though.

 

She used to work in the city’s main hospital, in the metahuman ward and as first response for any potential superhero accidents that came into the ER. Any toxic waste spills or meteor showers or the like were hers.

 

The ward work was difficult and stressful at times – often her patients were villains who needed restraining as well as healing. And seeing the results of her hard work being inevitably wrecked again got her down at times – spending five hours assisting Dr Hippocratic to painstakingly piece together Lord of Terror’s jawbone only for him to get it re-shattered in his very next fight with Mr Excellent.

 

But in the end it was the work in the ER that made her quit, and it hadn’t been anything especially dramatic. Just one more accident, one more irradiated insect escaping from inadequate caging, one more young boy moaning in pain over his bitten hand.

 

One more family’s fear-filled eyes following her every move anxiously as she worked, with the slowing, rattling breath of their son in the background. One more mother’s anguished cry in the morning.

 

She remembers walking to the bus stop as the day brightened up from a grey dawn and thinking, very calmly, ‘I can’t do this any more’

 

She likes her job at Sky High. It can be repetitive and boring at times and it doesn’t often test her medical skills that much, but she likes the kids and she respects Principal Powers. And if the days of near inactivity grate sometimes, well. She doesn’t dream of dead children very often anymore either.

 

It’s a worthwhile trade.

 

 

** _ Freeze girl _ **

It’s not that she ever had feelings towards him. You can get that out of your mind straight away.

 

It’s merely that he _humiliated _her. Broke off their relationship in the middle of the cafeteria, in front of everyone and it isn’t as if she didn’t hear the whispers about it in the corridors afterward.

 

But that’s all it is. Not because she felt hurt or upset. It’s not as if she felt there were butterflies in her stomach before he picked her up for their dates, not like her skin quivered when he kissed her.

 

It was just a blow to her pride, not her heart. That’s all.

 

And it’s not as if she’s going to do anything about it now, is she? No – now she’s going to smile and smile and bide her time and then, eventually, Warren Peace is going to be sorry.

He’s going to find that things can be preserved for a long time under ice.

 

After all, they do say revenge should be served cold, and she’s very well placed to do that.


End file.
